University of North Texas

About: University of North Texas is a education organization based out in Denton, Texas, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 11866 authors who have published 26984 publications receiving 705376 citations. The organization is also known as: Fight, North Texas & UNT.

New Millennium Research For Educational Technology: A Call for a National Research Agenda

Abstract: Research to indicate unique pedagogical benefits of technology in education flourished until the mid-1980s, when criticism of the premises and methodologies of studies made educators question the usefulness of so-called “media research.” Currently, increasing costs of maintaining technology infrastructure and evidence of low use of technology by teachers has generated new urgency for research to help provide a rationale for specific uses of technology to support teaching and learning. The new National Educational Technology Plan currently under development by the US. Department of Education provides an ideal opportunity for articulating a plan for meaningful research. This article describes topics and issues on which new research should focus and offers guidelines for research methods to address previous criticisms and provide results to guide future use of technology in education.

SemEval-2012 Task 1: English Lexical Simplification

Abstract: We describe the English Lexical Simplification task at SemEval-2012. This is the first time such a shared task has been organized and its goal is to provide a framework for the evaluation of systems for lexical simplification and foster research on context-aware lexical simplification approaches. The task requires that annotators and systems rank a number of alternative substitutes -- all deemed adequate -- for a target word in context, according to how "simple" these substitutes are. The notion of simplicity is biased towards non-native speakers of English. Out of nine participating systems, the best scoring ones combine context-dependent and context-independent information, with the strongest individual contribution given by the frequency of the substitute regardless of its context.

Molecular evolutionary and structural analysis of the cytosolic DNA sensor cGAS and STING

Abstract: Cyclic GMP-AMP (cGAMP) synthase (cGAS) is recently identified as a cytosolic DNA sensor and generates a non-canonical cGAMP that contains G(2′,5′)pA and A(3′,5′)pG phosphodiester linkages. cGAMP activates STING which triggers innate immune responses in mammals. However, the evolutionary functions and origins of cGAS and STING remain largely elusive. Here, we carried out comprehensive evolutionary analyses of the cGAS-STING pathway. Phylogenetic analysis of cGAS and STING families showed that their origins could be traced back to a choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis. Modern cGAS and STING may have acquired structural features, including zinc-ribbon domain and critical amino acid residues for DNA binding in cGAS as well as carboxy terminal tail domain for transducing signals in STING, only recently in vertebrates. In invertebrates, cGAS homologs may not act as DNA sensors. Both proteins cooperate extensively, have similar evolutionary characteristics, and thus may have co-evolved during metazoan evolution. cGAS homologs and a prokaryotic dinucleotide cyclase for canonical cGAMP share conserved secondary structures and catalytic residues. Therefore, non-mammalian cGAS may function as a nucleotidyltransferase and could produce cGAMP and other cyclic dinucleotides. Taken together, assembling signaling components of the cGAS-STING pathway onto the eukaryotic evolutionary map illuminates the functions and origins of this innate immune pathway.

Cuffless Differential Blood Pressure Estimation Using Smart Phones

Abstract: Smart phones today have become increasingly popular with the general public for their diverse functionalities such as navigation, social networking, and multimedia facilities. These phones are equipped with high-end processors, high-resolution cameras, and built-in sensors such as accelerometer, orientation-sensor, and light-sensor. According to comScore survey, 26.2% of U.S. adults use smart phones in their daily lives. Motivated by this statistic and the diverse capability of smart phones, we focus on utilizing them for biomedical applications. We present a new application of the smart phone with its built-in camera and microphone replacing the traditional stethoscope and cuff-based measurement technique, to quantify vital signs such as heart rate and blood pressure. We propose two differential blood pressure estimating techniques using the heartbeat and pulse data. The first method uses two smart phones whereas the second method replaces one of the phones with a customized external microphone. We estimate the systolic and diastolic pressure in the two techniques by computing the pulse pressure and the stroke volume from the data recorded. By comparing the estimated blood pressure values with those measured using a commercial blood pressure meter, we obtained encouraging results of 95-100% accuracy.

Mobile shopping motivation: an application of multiple discriminant analysis

Abstract: Purpose – This study aims to examine mobile shoppers' shopping motivations compared with those of non‐mobile shoppers (i.e. potential adopters) and to identify driving motivations for consumers to use the mobile shopping channel.Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 400 mobile service users was drawn from a purchased consumer panel who completed a web‐based survey. Multiple discriminant analysis was used to analyze the data.Findings – The results indicate that idea, efficiency, adventure, and gratification shopping motivations are significant determinants of mobile shoppers, implying that those shopping motivations are push factors of mobile shopping.Research limitations/implications – The sample of this study consists primarily of US consumers with the largest group of respondents aged 19 to 30 years old; thus, the result may have a limited application to other countries and other age groups. Future research is encouraged to categorize mobile shopping service characteristics into shopping motivations...